Anchors Aren’t ‘Gelling’ on Early-Morning CNN Show: Report

The New York Post reported Thursday that Banfield isn’t “gelling” with her “Early Start” co-anchor, Zolaida Sambolin. Quoting unnamed sources, the Post’s story — here — pins the problem on “a lack of chemistry.”

Basically, Ashleigh’s coming across as far more loquacious, while Sambolin appears reticent to jump into the fray, the Post story says. “Early Start” is the new early-morning show (5-7 a.m./4-6c) seen on weekdays that leads in to “Starting Point,”Soledad O’Brien’s morning show. Both debuted on CNN last month.

If the story that Sambolin and Banfield are turning out to be less compatible than previously hoped is true, then it sounds like a situation that bedeviled another CNN show, “Parker/Spitzer.” On that show, CNN paired columnist Kathleen Parker with former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, an on-air partnership that dissolved because Spitzer was so outgoing that he overwhelmed Parker. She wound up leaving the show and, eventually, it was canceled anyway.

Of course, a CNN spokesperson is quoted in the Post story as saying everything is hunky-dory with the Ashleigh and Zoraida.